the other, not to make the victory consist in their general slaughter,
that they would suffer them to depart without arms. When they were bid
by the consul to go to the dictator, he, incensed against them, added
ignominy (to defeat). He orders Gracchus Cloelius, their general, and
other leaders to be brought to him in chains, and that they should
evacuate the town of Corbio; "that he wanted not the blood of the
Æquans: that they were allowed to depart; but that the confession may be
at length extorted, that their nation was defeated and subdued, that
they should pass under the yoke." The yoke is formed with three spears,
two fixed in the ground, and one tied across between the upper ends of
them. Under this yoke the dictator sent the Æquans.
[Footnote 131: _Ad prohibenda circumdari opera_. Stroth observes that it
should be more properly _ad prohibenda circumdanda opera_, i. e. ad
prohibendum, ne opera circumdarentur.]
29. The enemy's camp being taken, which was full of every thing, (for he
had sent them away naked,) he distributed all the booty among his own
soldiers only: chiding the consul's army and the consul himself, he
says, "Soldiers, ye shall do without any portion of the spoil taken from
that enemy to which you were well nigh becoming a spoil: and you, Lucius
Minutius, until you begin to assume the spirit of a consul, shall
command these legions as lieutenant-general." Minutius accordingly
resigns his office of consul, and remains with the army, as he had been
commanded. But so meekly obedient were the minds of men at that time to
authority combined with superior merit, that this army, mindful of the
kindness (conferred) rather than of the slur (cast on them), both voted
a golden crown of a pound weight to the dictator, and saluted him as
their patron when setting out. The senate at Rome, being convened by
Quintus Fabius, præfect of the city, ordered Quintius to enter the city
in triumph, in the order of march in which he was coming. The leaders of
the enemy were led before his car: the military standards were carried
before him: his army followed laden with spoil. Tables with provisions
are said to have been laid out before the houses of all, and (the
soldiers) partaking of the entertainment, followed the car with the
triumphal hymn and the usual jests, after the manner of revellers. On
that day the freedom of the state was granted to Lucius Mamilius of
Tusculum, with universal approbation. The dictator would have laid down
his office, had not the assembly for the trial of Marcus Volscius, the
false witness, detained him; the fear of the dictator prevented the
tribunes from obstructing it. Volscius was condemned and went into exile
to Lanuvium. Quintius laid down his dictatorship on the sixteenth day,
having received it for six months. During those days the consul Nautius
engages the Sabines at Eretum with distinguished success. Besides the
devastation of their lands, this additional blow also befell the
Sabines.
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